The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems, and more particularly to a virtual controller group management system for grouping a plurality of information handling systems.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system (IHS) generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Some IHSs include network connectivity and control functionality that allows those IHSs to communicate with other IHSs in order to coordinate into controller groups such that one of the IHSs in the controller group may control at least some functions of the other IHSs in that controller group. For example, wireless access point IHSs allow wireless devices to connect to a wired network using wireless communication technologies (e.g., WiFi wireless communication technologies), and some wireless access point IHSs may be configured to communicate with each other to form an access point IHS group that provides a user the ability to access the wired network over a larger physical area than any single access point IHS may provide while only having to provide a single set of access credentials. The conventional grouping of access point IHSs to form an access point IHS group raises a number of issues.
For example, there are no industry standards for grouping access point IHSs into an access point IHS group and, as such, solutions for doing so are vendor/manufacturer specific and require that each of the access point IHSs being grouped into a particular access point IHS group be provided from the same vendor/manufacturer. Furthermore, each of the access point IHSs to be grouped into an access point IHS group must be provided access to the same broadcast domain (e.g., the same virtual local area network (VLAN)) to allow each access point IHS to broadcast to the other access point IHSs in that broadcast domain so that the access point IHSs may communicate to determine an access point IHS group and elect an access point IHS group controller. The use of broadcast domains to enable the access point IHS-to-access point IHS communications that are necessary to set up an access point IHS group and elect an access point IHS group controller results in the designation of scarce broadcast domains for this function when they could otherwise be used for other applications, and requires that access point IHSs that are to be grouped into an access point IHS group be connected to the same network infrastructure.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an improved controller group management system.